College of Extended Learning in the News

Bill Mann dies at 79

Aug. 11, 2006 • San Bernardino County Sun • Chuck Mueller, Staff Writer

BARSTOW, Calif. - Bill Mann, a desert miner who wrote six guidebooks on the Mojave Desert and led thousands of visitors on field trips into the vast region for 30 years, died at his home here on Saturday. He was 79.

A memorial service has not been announced.

His sixth book, a guide to the Big Bear area, was published last week.

Mann was diagnosed last year with leukemia but persisted in writing his final guidebook. He spent 16 weeks at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, receiving blood transfusions from many grateful followers who took part in his field trips.

From the depths of the Amargosa Gorge to the heights of Impassible Pass, Mann crisscrossed the vast desert for more than half a century. His popular guide books, describing hidden valleys and stark canyons, intertwined history and mystery.

"I've loved exploring this fascinating region, traveling into the most remote places - the remoter the better," he said in a recent interview. " This harsh, dry country is rugged, unforgiving and enchanting."

Mayor Lawrence Dale called Mann "an outstanding citizen" and said his writings "helped preserve the history of our community and entire High Desert."

Former Mayor Mal Wessel, senior resident agent for the FBI for years, remembered Mann as a good businessman and family man. He said, "You meet a man like him only once in a lifetime. He loved the High Desert and wrote about what he loved with dedication and insight."

Barstow historian Clifford Walker said Mann's books have helped make the Mojave a destination for many travelers. "They have enlightened visitors about the desert's history and geography," Walker said. "Bill captured a lot of our heritage over the years, passing it along to untold hundreds of readers."

Mann's extensive knowledge of the Mojave reflected the three decades of field trips he led for Barstow's Mojave River Valley Museum and California State University's Desert Studies Center at Zzyzx, near Baker.

He met his wife, the former Dorothy Galvin, While they were students at Pomona College in Claremont

"It was a good day when she came into my life," Mann wrote in dedicating Volume 2 of his guidebook series to her. " I wouldn't know to do without her," He said.

Since 1998, more than 35,000 copies of his books have been sold.

In 1950, Mann and his cousin, Ronald Brubaker, co-founded a small mining company that produces ornamental rock in various colors used for roofing and landscaping throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. It also ships to buyers as far away as Norway and Thailand. Colored rock produced by the company adorns the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the terminal entrance at the new Palm Springs airport, the majestic palace in Bangkok, Thailand, and roofs at UC Riverside and the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana. Utility companies use rocks of different colors to mark the location of gas or water lines. And the infield at Dodger Stadium is composed of rock quarried by Brubaker-Mann.

The author's treks into the Mojave led to gold mines, ramshackle ghost towns, ancient wall paintings called petroglyphs, and remote springs savored by early settlers.

Mann served in the Merchant Marines in the Pacific in World War II, and his war experience taught him to enjoy every day of his life. At Iwo Jima, he climbed Mount Suribachi to see the American flag that Marines had raised there a short time earlier.

He was born in McPherson, Kan., on Dec. 30, 1926. He came to California in 1929, and was raised in Pomona, where he attended Mount San Antonio College. He received his bachelor's degree in history at Pomona College in 1952.

In addition to his wife, Mann is survived by his son, John Mann of San Dimas; four daughters, Julie Ann Clemer of Barstow, Jennifer Henderson of Rancho Mirage, Janice Chagoya of Arroyo Grande and Jill Porter of Escondido; two brothers, Gerry Mann of Tustin and Dennis Mann of Upland; and eight grandchildren.

The family asks donations be made in Mann's memory to Visiting Nurses Association Hospice, 220 E. Main St., Suite 112, Barstow, or the Mojave River Valley Museum, 270 E. Virginia Way, Barstow.

The family especially requests that people continue to donate blood and platelets in Mann's name at Barstow Community Hospital or Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.